It was a hot summer day when he first felt the wind beckoning him towards the forest.

  The boy turned his attention from his mother’s hands, and searched for the voice calling for him, but found nothing that could’ve possibly invited him into the sea of trees.

  Intrigued by her son’s unusual shift in attention, Alise followed his gaze into the forest, curious as to what might have taken his notice. But just like his son, she couldn’t quite spot anything.

  “It’s much too early for you to wander into the forest, Gale. You’ll get lost.”

  Barred from following the wind, the boy didn’t offer a word of complaint, and silently turned his attention back to his mother’s hands, even as the soft whispers in the wind kept on inviting him into the forest until it was replaced by a familiar distant footsteps when the sky had turned a golden hue.

  With his back towards the setting sun, his father was approaching while carrying something other than the usual tools in his hand.

  “Look, I got a rabbit!” The man said with jolly in his voice while holding up the rabbit by the ears to show his wife and child.

  “Welcome back, Razh, honey,” Alise said, a smile creeping to her face. “Seems we’re having rabbit for dinner?” She added cheerily.

  After she greeted her husband, the woman then put down the piece of cloth she was sewing, stood up, and pulled her son close with a hesitant, almost awkward motion. She gently ran her hand over his hair, but kept her eyes on her husband’s who also kept his on hers without breaking for a moment.

  “Yeah, nice isn’t it?” her husband asked when he reached the two.

  Alise only replied with a smile, and moved her hand from her son’s hair to the rabbit and took it from her husband’s hand.

  The family had a delightful smell wafting through the house that night. Stew with shredded rabbit meat in it, and a cut of grilled meat. Quite the lavish meal, one that they couldn’t hope to eat everyday.

  On most days, Gale’s family would have to make do with just stewed vegetables that Alise foraged from the forest, or vegetables that the family grew in their own small field. And since they eat the same food just about everyday, especially during this time of year approaching the village’s harvest, the food on the table that night was a joy for the family.

  Even for Gale, young as he may be, the satisfying bite that let meat juice flow into his mouth was much more satisfying compared to the bitter tasting turnips he would often find in his watery soup. Not that his face showed much of the delight.

  “Do you like it?” His mother asked while wiping some of the juices he had smeared around his mouth as he continued to bite down onto his cut of grilled meat. “If only we could eat this everyday, huh?” She added cheerily after the juices around his mouth had been wiped clean.

  “What, you’re not satisfied with the food I give you?”

  Silence followed as Alice felt her stomach drop to the floor, and she didn’t dare to move a muscle. Instead, she only closed her eyes and uttered a silent apology to her son.

  “That’s not what I—”

  “No, that’s what you meant, ain’t it?”

  “No, I just—”

  “Just what?!” Razh yelled as he threw his bowl of stew at his wife. “I go out there to work every day, and I can’t be appreciated in my own house?! I let you live in my house and grow your vegetables in my yard, and you can’t be bothered to thank me?!” he continued before getting up to make his way towards Alise.

  For a while after, only the sound of blunt thunks of wooden utensils used by Razh to beat his wife could be heard. She had apologised over and over again, but he ignored every word as he mercilessly brought a wooden bowl cleared of the stew down on her head.

  After a while, maybe after he was satisfied, or he got tired, the man finally stepped away from his wife. He straightened his back, and gazed on the pitiful woman breathing raggedly beneath him for a while, before turning back to the table where he found his son with clean rabbit bones on his plate.

  Irked by the sight, he approached his son, and he looked up with a blank stare in his eyes.

  His son had always been odd—hadn’t even cried the day he was born. In the three years they shared a roof, he never showed much of anything in his face, and it often struck Razh as eerier how quiet and lacking in expression the boy was.

  The other children were all energetically running about, looking to have fun and often thirst for their parent’s attention, but his son alone was different.

  His friends always talked about how their children are doing this and doing that, making them feel proud, or sad, or anything. And whenever they talked about such things, he alone never had anything to say.

  “Freak” he said as he brought his fist to his son hard enough to topple the three year old from his seat.

  “No! He didn’t do anything, please!” Alise pleaded.

  Maybe it had somehow worked or her husband had lost interest after seeing the lack of reaction from their son, but he immediately left things there, with the poor child in a coughing fit after being hit on the side of his ribs and left him to head to his bedroom.

  Alise quickly rushed to her son’s side on the floor and brought him up in an embrace while checking his body thoroughly. After confirming that her son was relatively fine, except for the bruise forming where his father had hit him, she cupped his cheeks and gave him a smile, without giving the slightest notice to her own wounds.

  It was only when her blood finally dripped down from her forehead onto her son’s face did she finally take notice.

  “Hahaha. I’m sorry for getting it on you,” she said whilst reaching towards a scrap of cloth on the table.

  Evidently, a scrap of cloth that was just used to wipe off rabbit fat wouldn’t be very good at cleaning someone’s face. A fact that the mother just realized after smearing meat juice over her son’s and her own face.

  “Do you want to take a bath?” Alise asked his son with a soft voice.

  Bathing was not really done regularly, but being a village that’s located close to a river, the population here bathed more frequently than most. Still, they would only do so when they feel really dirty and definitely not after the sun had sunk.

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  This time, maybe because she wanted some time away from her husband, Alise took Gale by the arm and walked towards the forest where the river could be found.

  His mother had forbidden him from entering the forest earlier, but it’s not like he’d never been. He just never went alone. Together with his mother, he could move relatively quickly, and she could make sure he wouldn’t lose his way even in the dark.

  When they reached the river, Alise stripped off her clothing, and stripped Gale off his. There’s no one around at this time, so they had privacy and could bathe in peace, but they would usually use some light clothes and bathe alongside others.

  Really, she still felt more comfortable using those clothes even though she knew no one was around, but those clothes were in their bedroom, where Razh is right now.

  Alise started with wiping his son’s body down.

  She took extra care to be gentle around the bruise that just formed where his father had hit him, but after confirming that her son wasn’t reacting in pain, she continued to wash his body as she normally would.

  Much like how he’s not showing any sign of pain even though she’s scrubbing his bruise, her son has always been odd. Although she had somewhat gotten used to the beating, Alise still found it just a little too harsh sometimes. Her son on the other hand, never reacted in any way other than the bodily reaction such as coughing when he had the air beaten out of his lungs.

  Not only that, he had never expressed anything like any other kid would. He would sometimes show interest in what she’s doing, like watching when she knits, but instead of curiosity, to Alise, it felt much more as if a duty to watch.

  The name Gale was given when the boy didn’t let out a single cry when he was born. His mother hoped that even though he was quiet at birth, he would make loud noises throughout his life, like a gale of wind would. And when she finished wiping his body down, she made a silent prayer, once again hoping for that wish to come through.

  Before dressing her son after his bath, she still had to clean her own body, especially her face to get rid of the blood that had seeped through the cut on her forehead. That was when she noticed her son blankly staring into the forest.

  Come to think of it, he had done the same thing earlier before the sun set. “Have you found something interesting?” she asked before following his line of sight into the forest.

  “They are calling,” he said, extending a hand towards the forest.

  Surprised, Alise hurried to cover herself thinking someone had found them bathing. But after frantically looking around to see where the person was, she couldn’t find anyone between the trees. With plenty of moonlight shining on them, she should have been able to spot anyone there quite easily.

  Time passed while she kept her hands over her nude in embarrassment, only for, instead of a person, something that looked like an insect around the size of her knuckle flew in from behind the trees towards the hand her son had extended and landed there.

  Alise finally realized that no one was around, and she let out a breath of relief to ease her tensed body. Once calm, she then approached her son. “Have you found a friend, Gale?” She asked before inspecting the insect on her child’s arm.

  “Is this a friend?” He asked back.

  Once close enough, she saw that what had landed on her son’s arm was no insect. It was a small person with a pair of wings on their back, which startled her when they turned to look up at her, causing her to fall on her bottom.

  “A- a- a- fairy!”

  The fairy, as his mother had called it, climbed up Gale’s arm to his shoulder and he found himself making eye contact with it. It looked every bit like a person, except for the pair of butterfly-like wings on its back. Even the small human face had every part his own face had.

  Alise knew of them only from tales she had heard from her parents and from travelling merchants that would sometimes visit Carmul for trade. They are one of the few forms that a spirit could take when interacting with mortals.

  The stories she heard had said that they were nature itself. Spirits are ethereal beings with no physical form that sometimes appear as a fairy to interact with mortals they have taken fondness to while staying hidden and elusive to most.

  But she couldn’t quite understand why a fairy had reached out to her son. Humans were one of the races not commonly liked by spirits as they cultivate nature to fit their needs instead of working with nature in a symbiotic relationship, like elves of the forest for example do.

  Still in awe, she suddenly heard the sound of water sloshing from the river.

  When Alise turned to look at the source of the sound, she found there another small person exiting the river. This one didn’t have a pair of wings, and swiftly slithered on the ground, and up her son’s body to stand on his free shoulder.

  Seeing fairies on both her son’s shoulders, she stood up to inspect them closer. The first one with wings seems just like a small bald person with wings, and the second one seemed just like a small bald person dripping wet, understandably because they just crawled out of the river.

  She slowly raised a hand towards the second fairy, but when she got her finger close, a burst of water sprayed to push her back and caused her to fall on her bottom once again.

  Doesn’t seem like fairies like to be touched.

  Now seated on the ground, she noticed a third small person on her son’s feet. When Gale reached down to reach towards the third fairy, she quickly exclaimed to stop him. But despite her worry, her son was able to scoop the third fairy up without any problem.

  The third fairy, now on Gale’s hands, just like the two before, looked just like a bald person. Like the second fairy, this one doesn't have wings on its back, but unlike the other two, it had patches of what looks like crust of rocks on it.

  She observed the three fairies with her son for a while, and once she had confirmed they were not here to harm her son, Alise left him with them and continued on with her bath.

  But she obviously couldn’t completely ignore the situation, and would still sometimes turn to check on her son to make sure he hadn't been harmed by the fairies, and would find him seemingly playing with them every time. Or rather, find them playing with him.

  They would tug on his limbs to try and bring him somewhere, but when they realized he wouldn't budge, they would ruffle his hair, and inspect other parts of his body.

  When she finally finished her bath, she put her clothes back on and called her son over to dress him. The boy quickly left the fairies and went towards his mother to get dressed.

  “It’s time to go back and sleep,” his mother said to him while eyeing the fairies. “Will you say bye bye?”

  Gale turned back to look at the fairies he had left on the ground where he stood earlier and waved at the three of them. The fairies returned the gesture and went their separate ways, back to where each of them came from.

  The winged fairy flew away from them. The wet fairy slithered back to the river, and the rock crusted fairy walked towards the forest. They all disappeared from sight, and Alise let out a sigh of relief.

  Fairies are embodiments of spirits and the stories tell of how they would lend their power to people they are fond of. But after being attacked by one, she found the story not quite reliable enough to relax and leave her son with them. To her knowledge, stories are prone to exaggeration by the bards and minstrels that tell the tales after all.

  “Let's go back home,” she said after dressing her son with his clothes.

  She picked her son up and carried him in her arms. When he turned to look at her, she brought her face closer and snuggled her cheeks to his.

  Her husband’s behaviour was part of it too, but the sudden appearance of fairies around her son had left her feeling a little bit overwhelmed.

  After moving her face away from her son’s, she started making her way back while checking on her son every now and then. Eventually, curiosity got her, and she reached a hand towards her son’s body to prod a little around the part where it bruised.

  “Does it not hurt?” She asked.

  In response, her son followed his mother’s lead and prodded around the same part of his body. When he got to where the bruise was worst, he pressed on it, and could feel a sharp sensation when he did so.

  “Is this hurt?”

  Alise then started rubbing the part her son asked about to stop him from pressing down on it, and to soothe it. “It hurts.”

  Gale looked down on his mother’s hand. He now knew what that sensation was on his body. But strangely, when his mother does it, it wasn’t quite the same sensation.

  Instead of the sharp, cold twinge, it was warm and gentle. But all the same, it was as foreign as what ‘hurt’ was moments ago.

  “Gale,” his mother called out to him. “If you feel hurt and in need of help. If I’m not there to help you, you can ask your friends for help. Okay?”

  Gale recognized what friends are. It’s the small creature that had gathered around him earlier. His mother had told him so. So, in understanding, he replied with a nod.